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Copyright of Dados - Revista de Ciências Sociais is the property of DADOS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The manuscript discusses the limitations of applying AI in trend research platforms for the fashion system. This analysis intends to take a position within the emergent research topic of AI. Considering its ethical implications, we explore the opportunities of implementing AI to support trend research from a design-oriented perspective, realising the relationship between fashion and trends, which is central in shaping the future. Examples of AI-powered trend platforms evidence how valuable their insights are for strategic innovation. The analysis focuses on platforms that provide tailored services using AI and expert interpretation. Virtue ethics of technology serves as a useful framework to examine this topic, proposing a new set of virtues that respond to technology’s shaping of behaviour and its disadvantages. The risks of applying AI are many-fold; the consequences perpetuate power imbalances and social inequality. Proposing guidelines for enabling a responsible practice explores how to forge ethics into AI, creating a pluralised practice.

Carolyn Dinshaw describes her queer historical practice as being about looking for "an affective connection, for community, for even a touch across time" (1999, p 21). Queer engagements with records—these touches across time—are not easily or adequately accounted for in current conceptualisations of provenance. The dissonance between how we currently understand record co-creation, and the historical perspectives and recordkeeping needs of queer users, substantially and negatively impacts the visibility and accessibility of queer histories in institutional archival settings. In this paper, I articulate the proposed concept of queer as provenance. I argue that we must extend our current conceptualisation of multiple provenance beyond mere co-creatorship. With a focus on queer records and record users, I argue that we must expand our understanding to encapsulate not only the relationship between record, creator, and subject, but also the relationship between record, creator, subject, and user. Through a continuum lens, I consider how queer/ing engagements and interactions with, and responses to, queer records could and should inform our descriptive practices, and explore the potential of considering queer users as co-creators within such a dynamic. I conclude by articulating queer as provenance and consider its potential as a foundation on which transformative, reparative, and liberatory archival practices might be built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK charity Crimestoppers supports the police by taking and passing on information about crime. However, its service has been subject to little examination. This paper explores how Crimestoppers acts as an enabler to reporting crime and assists the police in solving crime. A small-scale qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, was conducted with participants drawn from Crimestoppers' contact centre and two Welsh police forces. Following a thematic analysis, the overarching finding submits that 'anonymity' is the golden thread which preserves Crimestoppers existence. The charity has a strong relationship with the police and exists in a network of plural policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hessische Blätter für Volksbildung is the property of wbv Media GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines 'auxiliary' police in three European countries and the extent to which they continue to present a pluralisation of public sector policing. Examining findings from existing empirical research, we will argue that despite different origins, systems of governance, formal powers and levels of centralisation, the police auxiliaries in England and Wales, France and The Netherlands have all experienced an overall trend towards becoming more 'enforcement-orientated'. This unique comparative analysis measures each agency's powers, appearance, organisational dimensions and mandate and the associated drivers towards change, such as the politicisation of law and order, large-scale institutional transformations and professionalisation attempts. This analysis will have implications for pluralised policing scholarship as it questions the extent to which auxiliary officers provide a true alternative to the standard or national public policing mandate, which has historically highlighted the 'law and order' function of the police. It also highlights the lack of research on what 'policing by government' (Loader, 2000) looks like in practice and the need for further comparative research with these auxiliary state policing actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a Napoleonic country such as Italy, ministerial cabinets have traditionally served as central advisors in the politicised policy advisory system (PAS), while evidence-based policy-making has usually been marginal. Nevertheless, recent developments in political systems have pushed for the pluralisation of the Napoleonic PAS toward a stronger demand for scientific and expert advice. Against this backdrop, the role of government research institutes (GRIs) as advisors represents an interesting change that could potentially fuel the development of an evidence-based approach in a period of changing advisory practices. We investigate these developments through a case study concerning 20 Italian GRIs that are engaged as influential advisors or recruited to support implementation through policy work. We obtained evidence through document analysis, in-depth interviews, and a questionnaire administered to the 20 GRIs. The overall picture displays a shift in conceiving policy advice in the political system and opens the door to innovation. Points for practitioners: Evidence-based policy making is expanding also in countries with scarce policy capacities. Government research institutes may be asked to perform different policy works, including evidence-based advice and also implementation tasks. The financial autonomy and reputation of the government research institute matter for their advisory role. Policy advice is described as the result of the matching between a contingent political demand and the offer of expert knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we draw on policy sociology and democratic theory to illustrate how evidence-based practice not only limits teachers' capacities to exercise professional discretion and authority, but also jeopardises the democratic project of schooling more broadly. Using theoretical concepts from Foucault's discipline with Connolly's pluralisation, we argue that evidence-based practice disciplines teachers to comply with a prescribed set of criteria, which constrains their capacity to respond to the evolving and emergent needs of their students and communities. Our argument is built from two projects conducted separately, but concurrently, in Australia and Denmark. The projects involved in-depth interviews with teachers, extensive observations within schools, and the collection and analysis of policy documents and artefacts. Using illustrative excerpts from both studies, we show how teacher participants expressed and embodied inclinations to do (or be) differently, but nonetheless felt the need to adhere to what the evidence established as the right way to do or be. In our view, this points to an increasingly rigid ontological space through which teachers can do, be and become, which raises questions about the extent to which an 'ethos of pluralisation' is possible within these schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pluralisation is attributing plurality to a noun or similar word. It is mostly done by inflection, that is by generally by adding a suffix either an -s or an -es to the root word to assign a grammatical function. It may demonstrate some change with regard to pronunciation. In most cases, though the pronunciation is not remarkable. In this paper, we identify how and to what extent the irregular pluralisation affects pronunciation. We also suggest some measures to fix this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trajectory of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers confronted with the pluralisation of the Islamist offer makes it possible to examine the effects of integration on this of the many aspects of moderation, understood as the separation of politics and religion. This integration has produced contradictory effects on the Muslim Brotherhood. On the one hand, it has reinforced the idea of an increased separation of religious and political activities, be it only to comply with the law. On the other hand, electoral competition has encouraged the mobilisation of religious resources in the political field. This case study argues in favor of the deconstruction of both concepts of moderation and integration in order to focus on stricter contextual factors and simpler explanatory hypotheses.

The Continuum concept of pluralisation is often misunderstood. This paper aims to explain how records are embedded in the society that created them from the time of their creation and how they can be further embedded throughout their lifespan by adding metadata to them, placing them in context, making them accessible to those who will need them in the future and potentially sharing them with the broader society according to societal rules. The author proposes to use the concept of societal embeddedness, which indicates that pluralisation is not just about sharing in the future, but also about incorporating societal expectations in records and recordkeeping systems, to help explain the concept of pluralisation. She shows how using simple examples from everyday life and discussing the societal context of the creation and use of records can help explain Records Continuum concepts, and in particular the concept of pluralisation, to students from non-English speaking backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between two state institutions, a civilian police and a paramilitary force, jointly tasked with maintaining law and order in Karachi. I describe this system of pluralised policing as a 'competitive-network model', in which unstructured cooperation between police and paramilitary officers coincides with competition and inter-agency conflict. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Karachi between 2015 and 2019, I analyse the impact of the competitive-network model on the civilian police. I argue that this relationship model causes institutional disruptions within the civilian police, reinforces the belief that militarisation of routine police work is necessary, and creates a crisis of self-legitimacy for civilian police officers who identify their institution as the 'younger brother' in such relational dynamics. This is the first study to investigate the partnership between two public policing providers in Pakistan. In doing so, it makes an empirical contribution to an expanding scholarship on the pluralisation of policing that currently lacks an understanding of partnerships between state officials and entities jointly tasked with public policing. It therefore raises important questions about the effects of police pluralisation, and prompts in-depth ethnographic research that assesses the impacts of pluralised policing on civilian police officers, particularly from contexts where the diversification of security actors may be politically motivated and detrimental to the professionalisation of civilian institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Socialno Delo is the property of Socialno Delo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rather than choosing between either catholic identity, or openness to otherness, the catholic dialogue school envisages, through the dialogue with the other, to stir the (re)discovery of one's own identity, and to introduce once again the Christian voice within the conversation. After introducing this project, I reflect more extensively on how to bring this Christian voice into this intended dialogue. In distinguishing between the content of faith (fides quae) and the attitude of faith (fides qua), I develop how both these dimensions are continuously related to one another, and this in an anthropological as well as a theological way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La diplomacia de la UE como una superposición cuántica: ¿hacia un marco conceptual para investigaciones multidisciplinares de un fenómeno de pluralización? Este artículo tiene como objetivo definir el concepto de diplomacia, así como conceptos relacionados, para establecer un marco conceptual para investigaciones multidisciplinares de la diplomacia contemporánea, considerando tanto la naturaleza esencial de la diplomacia como las implicaciones epistemológicas de una investigación científica multi-paradigmática. La diplomacia como fenómeno está inmersa en un proceso de pluralización en cuanto a actores y prácticas, lo que junto con la necesidad de acomodar enfoques empíricos muy diversos conlleva a la definición del concepto de diplomacia en términos de la gestión de las relaciones entre pueblos alienados. Para solucionar el problema de cómo estudiar la diplomacia desde diferentes enfoques paradigmáticos simultáneamente y de forma coherente, se propone conceptualizar la diplomacia de la UE como una superposición de distintos estados cuánticos. El artículo termina con una discusión de las consecuencias epistemológicas de la investigación multi-paradigmática posibilitado por la consideración de la diplomacia de la UE como una superposición cuántica.

Using a life course perspective, this paper tackles the pluralisation of family trajectories in Portugal. We draw on data from a cross-cohort survey, which included a retrospective lifecalendar, and on an innovative methodology, based on sequence and cluster analysis. Findings point to a limited pluralisation of family trajectories. A retrospective look at the trajectories of individuals dismantled idealizations of a monochromatic past but also challenged the contemporary narrative of family decline, as pluralisation and individualization trends do not discard some of the main tenets of family life cycle.

This article outlines some issues in incorporating the study of religions, together with non-religious world views, into the curricula of publicly funded schools in Western democratic states. Attention is given to examples from work on this topic conducted within the Council of Europe since 2002, with a particular focus on Signposts: Policy and Practice for Teaching about Religions and Nonreligious World Views in Intercultural Education, a text published by the Council of Europe in 2014. Signposts is designed to assist policy makers and practitioners in interpreting and applying ideas from the 2008 Recommendation from the Committee of Ministers (the Foreign Ministers of the 47 member states) dealing with education about religions and non-religious convictions. Various issues raised by the Signposts document are considered. Towards the end of the article, recent UK and Council of Europe policies which emphasise the study of religions and beliefs as a means to counter extremism, and which have appeared since the publication of Signposts, are summarised and discussed critically. Attention is drawn to the dangers of certain policies, and also to the plurality of aims which studies of religions and non-religious world views need to have in providing a balanced educational programme.

This article shows, as Peter Berger's desecularisation theory indicates, that the contemporary world is mainly religious as much as it was in the past, and although pluralisation somewhat loosens religious beliefs, people are largely religious. On a probability sample of a national survey in Iran, we show that Iranian's people are mainly religious. However, they are not very comment to religious behaviours, especially in treatment with others and the affairs of everyday life. Also, education has a negative, but minor impact on individuals' religiousness. However, it exerts a more impact on other dimensions of religious life, religious tolerance, and secularisation of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses all articles published in Accounting History using a topic modeling technique. Previous studies focus on the content of accounting history, but not how the field has evolved. The article complements prior assessments of the research published in Accounting History by providing measures of the relative prevalence of research areas and their evolution over time. The analysis offers insights into accounting history by refining previous categorisations, uncovering overlooked topic areas and substantiating trends, such as the demise of interest in the technical core of accounting in favour of more variegated and fragmented approaches. The findings are discussed in light of the claimed pluralisation of methodological and theoretical approaches in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the classification of Shona nouns by exploring their behaviour in the contexts of pluralisation, complex nominalisation and/nya-/inflection. Shona nouns are classified into classes 1 to 21 and sub classes 1a, 2a and 2b which is essentially according to their noun prefixes and agreement. Shona nouns in subclasses 1a, 2a and 2b behave differently from the other nouns in pluralisation, complex nominalisation and with/nya-/inflection. This work therefore suggests that Shona nouns could also be categorised semantically as proper and common nouns. It is recommended that comparative studies of Shona with other Bantu languages will go a long way in enhancing a deeper appreciation of the intriguing noun classification system. An enriching study which unpacks closely the Shona dialects and the possible contribution that each plays in the noun classification can be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to answer the following questions: How do journalists in Turkey discuss the emergence of new media specific technological forms? and In which circumstances are new media forms seen as contributing to the practices of journalism and when are they threatening it? Each mode in the study points to the relationship between journalism and technology and carries different implications regarding the changing nature of journalism in the digital age. The study is based on 22 in-depth interviews with online journalists and a survey based on "Likert attitude analysis" (N=126). In the study, journalists are selected from traditional and online news agencies, and the groups are consistent in terms of age, gender, and professional experiences. The findings of the study indicate that online journalism is required for diversity in the free market of the media sector, especially in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many ecclesiologists assume that pluralisation is a problem for churches. By drawing on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reception of Ernst Troeltsch, however, the author argues that pluralisation is instead a promise. Portraits which paint Bonhoeffer as ‘alternative’ to Troeltsch (and Troeltsch as ‘alternative’ to Bonhoeffer) have been proposed persistently. But in the ecclesiological explorations which Bonhoeffer elaborated in the 1920s and in the 1940s, Troeltsch’s impact on Bonhoeffer is neither simply negative nor simply positive – and should not be underestimated. The author aims to demonstrate that Bonhoeffer develops the ecclesiology which Troeltsch demanded in critical and creative discussion with him. Since it suggests that experiences of the other allow for encounters with God as much as encounters with God allow for experiences of the other, this ecclesiology provokes a re-thinking of pluralisation which might be important and instructive for the church in its current pluralised and pluralising contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a distinctive contribution to the current debates concerning the role of personal mobile technologies (PMTs) in public education. It does this through drawing attention to the imperative to integrate digitally-mediated personalised education with teacher-mediated pluralised education. Premised on the notion that children’s learning needs to be both tailored to individuals’ aspirations (i.e. personalised)andparticipatory, entailing the consideration of multiple perspectives (i.e. pluralised), the argument is made that for optimal learning outcomes, both personalisation and plurality need to be integrated when deploying PMTs in schools. Vygotsky’s theory is mobilised to provide a theoretical rationale for emphasising the vital role educators play in harnessing PMTs to support the development of traditional as well as new, 21st-century skills, and for the argument that personalisation and pluralisation need to be conceptualised as complementary forces within 21st-century education reform. A community project, which deployed PMTs, is used to exemplify how personalised and pluralised educational goals can be integrated and pursued within teaching–learning activities mediated by innovative technologies and educational professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst as a branch of the extended police family they are under-researched, volunteers have long played a role within constabularies. However, in the context of dominant political ideologies which have called for citizens to be more active in crime control and, more prosaically, pressure on police budgets at a time of state contraction, the volunteer is becoming more visible both in policing policy discourse and in practice. A novelty within Anglo-Welsh policing, this article explores the development and deployment of police support volunteer (PSV) programmes. First, it examines the nature of the roles that PSVs play and how these relate to roles played by other actors in the organisation. Second, it explores aspects of their management focusing on their coordination, training and supervision. Third, it considers the degree to which PSVs are integrated into the organisation and accepted by other actors who work therein, and discusses the reasons why the promulgation of PSVs might be resisted by salaried staff. Lastly, the article considers the implications in light of the scholarship on the pluralisation of policing focusing on the interlinked themes of effectiveness, coordination and integration and regulation and accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the latter part of the twentieth century, a trend towards the ‘pluralisation’ of policing emerged, and that trend is continuing in most European countries. In this article, we use Foucauldian governmentality theories to understand plural policing developments. The key point in this article is the conceptual analysis of the power relations generated by the rhetoric regarding and the practice of plural policing. A central objective is to explore the ways in which broader national, regional and local influences, and distinctive political institutions and structures, shape the agendas and actual decisions of key policy actors. The statement made by many Anglophilic scholars, that industrialised countries are becoming increasingly ‘pluralised-privitised’, often seems to have reached the status of universal acceptance. As the division of political power and state constitutional settlements differ in each country, we cannot rashly transfer British realities to other countries. This article broadens the body of knowledge by providing empirical data regarding the situation of plural policing in Belgium, as a case study. In this research, 27 years of security policing have been reconstructed, based on 72 in-depth interviews with politicians and civil servants, and an extensive document analysis. The findings reveal a completely different situation regarding plural policing than the common stream of empirical research in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform discussion in Senegalese language planning indicates a review of the situation, which cannot be done without due attention to previous debates regarding the significance of African languages in the postcolonial culture and educational politics.

One cannot deny that, even when not explicit, ethical themes run throughout Deleuze's works. Indeed, the method of dramatization directly relates to the production of ethical forms of being. As a method of investigation - critique, if one will - dramatization offers a consistent but dynamic method for interpreting and creating concepts. At the heart of such a method is the attempt to seek the anti-anthropological, anti-hegemonic and anti-representational forces described by Friedrich Nietzsche. It is at the level of this pre-individual multiplicity of forces that an axiology can be grounded. At this level, the singularity of a given object, domain or field of knowledge reveals itself. Most importantly, however, the method of dramatization resists the unethical relationship to being enacted throughout history by means of the logic of representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article considers the dominant structure and patterns of policing as related to Internet-based sex offences. It is argued that the policing of Internet sex offences occupies an anomalous position, as compared to other forms of online offending. One the one hand, the policing of Internet sex offences partakes of a wider trend towards the dispersed and pluralised governance of crime, a trend that is in many ways typified by responses to Internet crime. One the other hand, Internet sex offences are policed in ways at odds with responses to other forms of online offending – most especially in the extent of time, attention and resources directed to such offences by state-centred agencies. The state-centric response to such offences can be understood by appreciating their position within a ‘hierarchy of standing’ amongst and between Internet crimes. ‘Hierarchies of standing’ define offences differently according to their perceived seriousness and urgency, drawing upon collective judgements about the vulnerability of victims, the dangerousness of offenders, levels of risk and extent of harm caused. Public, political, media and expert assessments of sex offences serve to place them at the apex of the ‘hierarchy of standing’, and as such drive expectations that they will be subject to urgent and concerted action by state agencies, rather than being delegated to the responsibility of non-state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Taking the aftermath of the 2010 Australian election as its backdrop, this article examines the shifting character of democratic expression in contemporary democratic polities. Increasing societal pluralisation along with the growing professionalisation of political elites poses significant challenges to prevailing models of representative democracy. Key questions arise about the status of popular sovereignty as traditional conduits of democratic voice struggle to register and mediate new and highly differentiated interests, values and demands. The article problematises this issue simultaneously as a conceptual reformulation of democratic theory and as an analytical investigation of the reorientation of political practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, a new curriculum for Roman-Catholic religious education was introduced in Flemish primary and secondary schools, taking into account both the growing de-Christianisation and religious pluralisation of pupils in the classroom. Recently, this new curriculum has been subjected to diverging criticisms: first it is considered still too Christian, and therefore not able to appropriately deal with religious plurality, and, second, quite contrary to the first criticism, because it deals too much with religious plurality the curriculum is criticised for being no longer sufficiently Christian. In view of this double criticism, in this contribution I first shed some light on the analysis of the current post-Christian and post-secular religious situation, upon which the Religious Education (RE) curriculum is based – i.e. an analysis in terms of detraditionalisation and pluralisation (rather than secularisation). Afterwards I evaluate whether the fundamental goals, which were set 10 years ago, are still adequate to this analysis. In order to do so, I enquire how these goals relate to the double critique: on the one hand, that Roman Catholic RE is no longer an adequate way to prepare pupils for the post-Christian and post-secular society, because they are still too Christian, and, on the other, that they are not Christian enough. In doing so I will accentuate the integral nature of these goals, taking the present religious plurality as a dynamic given which opens up new opportunities for a more reflexive identity construction, while at the same time providing new space to bear witness to the Christian offer of meaning. I conclude with a short reference to the preconditions which need to be fulfilled in order to facilitate the implementation of such RE programme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article offers a critical engagement with multiculturalism and pluralisation in Japan. While recent efforts to introduce multicultural policies such as ‘domestic internationalisation’ policies and the textbook reform movement are encouraging, I suggest that they are limited as they fail to address notions of exclusivity—those founded on the ideology of nihonjinron—that shape Japanese identity. Moreover, mere recognition of minority populations works to entrench rather than undermine ethno-cultural hierarchies. That is, if official engagements with the ethno-cultural ‘Other’ simply reinscribe notions of exclusivity, exceptionality and even superiority, the hierarchalised distinctions drawn between inside/outside and ‘Japanese’/foreigner will continue to persist and minority populations will be relegated permanently to a second-class citizenry. Therefore, this contribution turns to the recently opened Kyushu National Museum as a means of addressing multiculturalism and pluralisation in Japan. Themed ‘Ocean Ways, Asian Paths’, the Kyushu National Museum is actually a transnational museum as it focuses not on artefacts specific to Japanese identity, but instead on the variegated ways in which Japan is inextricably connected with and indebted to its Asian neighbours. Thus, by exhibiting the miscegenated character of Japan's national origins, the Kyushu National Museum stands as a concrete example whereby notions of exclusivity are refashioned into a more accommodating, and perhaps ethical, engagement with alterity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Revija za Sociologiju is the property of Revija za Sociologiju and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, a new empirical methodology is presented aimed at framing the religious aspects of the identity structure of Catholic educational organisations. Under the auspices of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria, Australia, we developed three theoretical models into handy research instruments that allow us to quantify an organisation's confessional identity in a statistically responsible way: the Post-critical Belief Scale, the Melbourne Scale, and the Victoria Scale. After interpreting the results, it is possible to give recommendations concerning the policy steps aimed at a further development and enhancement of Catholic institutional identity. The normative framework of this research is the ideal of the recontextualisation of Catholic identity, based on dialogue with plurality and a symbolic understanding of religion. These empirical instruments are being integrated into an automated Web platform that will allow Catholic institutes to do autonomous research on the religious aspects of their collective identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of this article, the author tries to clarify a set of interconnected concepts--religious plurality (diversity), pluralization, and pluralism. As a descriptive concept for sociological theorizing, social pluralism is further differentiated into legal, civic and cultural arrangements. Modern pluralization may have started accidentally in the United States of America, but it has become a general trend in the world. In the second part, the author argues that the predominant type of Church--State relationship in the world today is neither monopoly nor pluralism, but oligopoly. More importantly, the theoretical propositions based on the studies of monopoly-pluralism are not applicable without substantial modification to explain oligopoly dynamics. The China case shows that in oligopoly, increased religious regulation leads not necessarily to religious decline, but to triple religious markets: the red market (legal), black market (illegal) and grey market (both legal and illegal or neither legal nor illegal). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]